U23D

"As you entered this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart."

~Bono, "Love and Peace or Else"

I love the way that this lyric is written. It is profound and poetic.

I went to see the U23D movie last night and enjoyed it thoroughly. Julie went with me and she thought the music was great, but had a hard time getting used to how unusual Bono is in concert. He definitely does not fit the mold of the cool rock lead singer, but is more into the art of music and considers his dress and behavior as all part of the art. I am glad that I own the U2 Chicago DVD and I was already used to his antics. I was also used to the 3D concert movie experience since Julie and I went to see Hannah Montana in 3D a couple weeks ago, but that review may have to wait for another post.

One of the things that I noticed that U2 does live is that they start strong with some fan favorites new and old such as "Vertigo" and "New Years Day" and then they take the audience to a darker side of life that people in the world are experiencing. Much of this is done through the music itself, but also through the incredible effects and light show that are going on behind and around the band. They get to this darker side with songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Love and Peace or Else" with some images reflecting war and conflict. During this time, U2 promotes the concept of Coexist which is an attempt to promote tolerance and unity among different religious groups. After this darker section, the screens show a young girl with a foreign accent (I couldn't place it directly) reading The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then Martin Luther King, Jr. appears as U2 goes into "Pride (In the Name of Love). It is very moving. They follow that with "Where the Streets Have No Name" and it is thrilling. The concert footage was from seven shows from various South American locations including Buenos Aires, Argentina and it was very powerful to me to see tens of thousands of Argentinians so enthusiastically singing about a better future.

That is one of the things that I admire about Bono and U2. I have only recently become a fan after their most recent CD and have grown to like their music more and more, but throughout their incredibly successful career, they have always had a very large view of what they could accomplish through art. Bono consistently sees things beyond himself and looks to try to influence things for the good of the poorest people on earth. He is politcally involved in trying to get the more prosperous nations (particularly the U.S.) to forgive debts to poorer nations who are trapped in a hopeless cycle of trying to pay back loans to countries that don't need it. This will help the people of those countries to improve their standard of living and save thousands of lives by promoting a more healthy living environment. Bono clearly says that one of his missions is to eradicate extreme poverty throughout the world. I know of no other popular artist that has such a huge vision of the world and his potential impact on it.

My only disappointment in the movie concert was that it was far too short and they didn't show them playing some of my favorites including "City of Blinding Lights" and "40". Even so, I highly recommend the 3D experience of U2 live.